Rear Tire carrier

[Crippled Eagle]

I've an 84 Bronco 2 without the outside tire carrier. My scrap yard has an 85 with one on it and I was wondering if anyone on here had ever put one on a Bronco 2 that didn't have one.
I can buy the whole carrier plus the hatch for $35.00, just needed to know if it is feasible to make the conversion.
This Bronco 2 is going to provide lots of good parts for mine. It has the TK5 in it which was priced to me for $75. I'm hoping it has good drive shafts. Sadly the 2.8 is locked up, but going to pull the heads just in case they are good.
Is there anything else I ought to buy off of it?
Real shame this one wasn't treated better, it was a very nice one in it's day.

 

[cammeddrz]

you can add the bracket and backing plate from a carrier'ed hatch onto a non-carrier'ed hatch, 2 3/8" holes just need to be drilled in the fiberglass

 

[B2 Addict]

I added a carrier to my '84 that didn't have one.......you do have to have the hatch also because it has an indentation to clear the brackets on the passenger side. $35 sounds good to me.....

To add the tire carrier.....first, install the hatch...next, hold the tire carrier to where you can put it in the latch on the hatch....with the carrier latched to the hatch plus the indentation on the passenger side of the hatch, you will have a reference point to mark where you need to drill holes for the brackets. (You will obviously have to hold it up as the carrier latch on the hatch will obviously not hold the carrier by itself)

Once you have the holes marked, remove the carrier from the latch & start drilling.....I can't remember what size holes you will need, but just use the same size as the holes in the side brackets on the carrier.

Now to the hard part.......the carrier equipped B2 has threaded holes for the bracket bolts to screw in & they are reinforced behind the body panel for strength, there is no access to them & the non carrier B2's do not have them. Once you have your holes drilled, you will have to remove the passenger side rear interior panel. There is not an opening to get to the back of the holes you drilled so you will have to cut out a section inside the cargo area in the area they are located for access, this is quite a pain but it is possible....you will now have access to the back of the holes.

You will need to make some sort of reinforcement or the bolts will rip out of the body, I just used some thin steel plates placed behind the quarter panel where the bolts come through.....drill holes in them to line up with the bolt holes & bolt 'er up.....there is not a lot of room to work with through the access panel you have to cut out but it can be done. When you reinstall your interior panel, it will obviously cover the hole & nobody will know it is there...

If I confused you, feel free to post up or shoot me a P.M, I will try to explain it more clearly...

Good luck!!


B2

 

[TexCaliBII]

I too put on on my 87 as it came with out the external carrier. However in my case I chose to replace the quarter panel from the donor truck to have the factory supports. Obviously that is more involved than what B2 Addict did. If I was to do this again I would try that method, for a variety of reasons..... Although I am rather happy with how mine turned out. You can not tell it never left the factory with this option.

 

[Crippled Eagle]

Thanks for sharing what you have done!
I looked it over real well and what has been said is certainly true.
The lower support can be reached by removing the tail light and the upper will involve cutting a hole.
I've already bought the hatch and carrier and since this Bronco 2 is headed for the crusher I'm going to try and remove the factory brackets by cutting the sheet metal around them and if spot welded I'll drill it loose.
The hatch has the window that opens while my old one does not. My old one has a rear wiper which I hope can be adapted to the newer hatch. Guess I'll find out when I pull the panel off and get to measuring everything.
I just found a wiper blade that fits the rear wiper. I asked at my local parts store and got the "deer in the headlights" look but one of the older guys kept on it until he found a blade that worked. The others had the "if it isn't in our catalog or on the computer, you can't get one".

 

[TexCaliBII]

Yeah I know about that "look" When I go into my local NAPA only the oldest guy there will wait on me as they know when I come in it usually ain't a quick thing I need. And both my BIIs are far from stock, well they at least have stock Ford parts in them, just not all of them came in a BII.... For the braces they are indeed spot welded to the inner and outer sheetmetal. Should be a doable thing the adapt them to your truck. I just chose to make sure it was braced by swapping in the quarter panel. Not sure I would do that again. Looks good but was a bit of work. As for the hatch/wiper. When I did this rear tire carrier mod on my 87 the donor had all that and I ran the factory wiring and lines and got wiper/washer/heated glass in one shot. Now on my 88, different story. It had rear tire carrier but otherwise a plain jane hatch and I swapped it for one from an 84 so I have the opening window and I'm adding a heating element. Now BIIs with that never had the wiper/washer/heated glass option with the opening window like Explorers have. I am putting the wiper washer system from my Ex donor into this hatch to make it just like an Ex rear window and contrary to what most folks are doing I am also adding electric locks to match my electric doors. That will be fun as the lower center rib is way different on the 84 hatch as it was never designed to have this stuff. Well, won't be my first foray into glass mods/repairs. Gotta get the 4.0 running good before I press with the rest of the mods though..... I'm going to make myself take pics when Ido this mod as I am also going to do the mod I've done in the past to prevent the hatch cracking from the rear tire carrier and I kick yself that I took no pics when I did this on my other trucks. Anyways, please keep us informed and post pics of your mod. I'm sure it will be a help to others comtemplating this.

 

[Crippled Eagle]

I'll try and find the old camera and take photos along the way.
I've got my hands full getting "goodies" off before the 85 takes it's last ride. I'm harvesting the drive shafts, transmission, transfer case, some of the wiring, hatch and carrier, dash panel to replace the one "modified" by someone to put a AM/FM cassette radio in, plus it has an add on glass heater for the rear window. I'm also taking the heads off to see if they are any good as I have another 2.8 with a cracked head in my son's 84 Bronco 2.